The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has awarded AXYS Technologies Inc. the contract to supply two WindSentinel floating LIDAR systems. The systems will be managed by PNNL to support research and development to help advance the U.S. offshore wind industry.

"This award reflects the DOE's commitment to the use of new technology to assist in reducing the cost of offshore wind energy in the United States," says Graham Howe, director of sales at AXYS. "We are pleased to be able to assist the DOE in their work.”

According to AXYS, the WindSentinel is a wind resource assessment buoy that uses LIDAR to measure wind speed, wind direction and turbulence offshore up to blade-tip heights of 200 meters.